Oscillation effects on supernova neutrino rates and spectraand detection of the shock breakout in a liquid argon TPC

Abstract

A liquid argon TPC (ICARUS-like) has the ability to detect cleanneutrino bursts from type-II supernova collapses. In this paper, we considerfor the first time the four possible detectablechannels, namely, the elastic scattering on electrons from allneutrino species, νe charged current absorption on Ar withproduction of excited K, ν̄e charged current absorption onAr with production of excited Cl and neutral current interactionson Ar from all neutrino flavours. We compute the total rates and energy spectra of supernovaneutrino events including the effects of the three-flavour neutrinooscillation with matter effects in the propagation in the supernova. Results show a dramatic dependence onthe oscillation parameters and on the energyspectrum, especially for charged-current events. The shock breakout phase has also been investigatedusing recent simulations of the core collapse supernova. We stress the importance of the neutral current signal to decouplesupernova from neutrino oscillation physics.